Electricity Meter Testing

fredfro

Hi,

Could anybody tell me the process of going through and getting a meter tested -what exactly happens?

Living in a 2 bed flat, where we are never in - and are using 17units a day. No heating is on and the water heater is turned off for "offpeak".

I came home today and found that the electiricty meter was going crazy even though no one was in and nothing was on except the fridge. Turning off the fridge made no difference?

I phoned Scottish Power and told me that they would charge £50 for a meter test - I'm happy to pay for it - but don't exactly know the process. What happens with it?

Thanks

espresso

fredfro wrote: »

Living in a 2 bed flat, where we are never in - and are using 17units a day. No heating is on and the water heater is turned off for "offpeak".

I came home today and found that the electiricty meter was going crazy even though no one was in and nothing was on except the fridge. Turning off the fridge made no difference?

Please explain, if you are using electricity to heat your water it should only be heated offpeak! Have you tried switching off the water heater?

fredfro

There are two switches next to the hot water cylinder - off peak and on peak.

The off peak was on and the on peak was on.

Our usage is 22KWH per day. Everything is off at the RCB except sockets and lights.

espresso

fredfro wrote: »

There are two switches next to the hot water cylinder - off peak and on peak.

The off peak was on and the on peak was on.

So your two immersion heater elements were heating the water 24/7 then!

fredfro

Sorry my fault, off-peak was ON and on-peak was OFF.

Both are off now - so we will either run out of hot water or our electricity will go down

Will arrange for the meter test tomorrow - 22KWH sounds horrendous considering no one is in and nothing is on standby. How is it tested? Does it take into consideration faulty wiring (we are in flats and a communal area for 90+ premises)

Fire_Fox

If you are only a small household you should be heating your hot water for half an hour a day. Secondly you being out of the house is irrelevant: most people leave something plugged in or on standby - microwave or oven clock, bedside alarms, cordless phones?

spiro

fredfro wrote: »

Sorry my fault, off-peak was ON and on-peak was OFF.

Both are off now - so we will either run out of hot water or our electricity will go down

Will arrange for the meter test tomorrow - 22KWH sounds horrendous considering no one is in and nothing is on standby. How is it tested? Does it take into consideration faulty wiring (we are in flats and a communal area for 90+ premises)

There are normally two levels of testing. First level is a 'load' test - basically the engineer will turn everything off and then turn someone one that uses a known load and he will then look to see if the meter appears to be recording correctly. If this test fails or you are not satisfied then the second level is a 'check meter'. Here they install a 2nd meter which they leave installed for a period of time (days/weeks). At the end they check if the consumption recorded on the two meters is within tolerance. If it is then there is nothing wrong, if it is not then typically they will refund the cost of the test, agree the percentage the readings have been out and recalulate the bills back to some point in the past, typically the point at which the fault was suspected.